Like A Rose
by Rayen Autumn King
Summary: Raylen has not been the same since Stephen Hart was killed.but a fateful evening had her running for her life through an anomaly to a timeline where Stephen Hart is alive,Oliver Leek was never a part of the program,Claudia Brown really exists,and the ARC building is in the progress of being built.Oh,and her original self from this timeline has been missing for 8 months.M for safety
1. Prologue

**Here is like a rose. As promised. enjoy**

**~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~X~**

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Prologue:

With a heavy sigh, the dark brunette sat in her office, staring at the walls in silence.

Two weeks… It had been two weeks since the funeral… Nick, Connor, Abby, Jenny, and Lester had all moved on in their own ways…

But she hadn't. She knew she should have by now, even with her silly schoolgirl crush on the tracker of the team. As she drummed a pen on the desk, she thought about the reason she couldn't let go of Stephen Hart. Especially since she had a boyfriend… abusive bastard he was. She had been thinking of taking Stephen up on a offer he had made when she had come into the ARC early to try and cover up so bruises and a black eye before everyone else got there, and Stephen was there for some reason and he caught her trying to put make up on her eye.

_"__Raylen?" the voice of the tracker frightened her as she dropped her sponge for foundation, and spun to face him._

_"__Stephen."_

_His blue eyes stared at the black eye. Her body was locked in place. It was a long moment before either of them spoke. For her it felt like an eternity that her dark forest eyes stared into his light ocean ones, and they back. And then… he spoke first._

_"__What happened?" he asked, stepping closer to her and reaching a hand to the bruised flesh._

_The brunette cringed away, but did not answer, her eyes on the floor._

_"__Raylen." His voice was firm, but gentle._

_"__Me and my boyfriend had a row." Her voice was timid and soft._

_"__And he hit you," he stated it bluntly as a statement, not a question._

_She nodded silently, several thoughts running through in a wash of panic. Would he tell everyone? What would Connor and Abby do or think when they heard? Especially Abby, whose childhood, was the similar?_

_He sighed, then grabbed the sponge and then covered it lightly with foundation. "Close your eyes." She did so obediently, and felt the sponge wipe over her eyelid as he gently covered up the blackened bruised flesh around her eye._

_Rayen didn't dare speak or move. The fact that Stephen was tending her black eye had her reeling in schoolgirl mode._

_He found the finger shaped bruises on her arms, and covered them with the makeup as well._

_"__Raylen," his voice had taken a tone she had never heard before. "If you want to get away from him, give me a call. I'll come get you, help you get a restraining order on him, and I'll give you a place to stay."_

_Raylen stared at Stephen. He just offered to help her…_

In the midst of her mental flashback, Raylen had managed to walk down to the car garage to her little car.

The day of the mammoth fiasco, the predator attack on Lester, the van bomb that Connor and Nick managed to de-wire, and then Leek's bunker, she had started to ask Stephen for help moving out of the house and getting the restraining order on William… and then the ADD went off. He had to grab stuff… and showed up after the mammoth was contained with **HER**… Helen Cutter, Nick's ex-wife. And the shattering of Raylen's world slowly began. When they returned to the ARC, she tried to ask again, but then he got into an argument with Nick over Helen… and walked out with a dozy of a bruise on his cheekbone. The last time Raylen had seen Stephen **ALIVE** was when he was standing in a room in the midst of predators from all over time, sacrificing himself to keep the creatures from getting out of the bunker.

_No… I need to forget,_ she told herself, putting the keys in the ignition, and then backing out of her space and then leaving the ARC.

Her hands gripped the wheel as she was plagued by another memory of the blue eyed tracker.

_Raylen was clinging to the edge of the cottage as the young—yet still fiercely aggressive—gorgonopsid tried to bite of her legs. Her hands took turns trying to grip a solid shingle so her swinging legs could get out of bite range._

_So far, several shingles had hit the creature in the face._

_"__HELP!" she screamed as another shingle went flying towards the gorgonopsid's head._

_"__HANG ON!" Connor said from above her on the peak of the roof._

_"__I'M ALREADY DOING THAT CONNOR!" she snapped at him as she tried another shingle and it disappointed her._

_There were then two roars; the roar of the creature, and the roar of an engine, then the gorgonopsid was t-boned by one of the trucks, then Stephen got out and put a few tranqs in the creature to make sure it stayed out. Then he looked up at Raylen who was quickly losing her grip on the roof._

_He dropped the gun and ran to stand under her waving legs._

_"__Raylen!" he yelled and the struggling young woman glanced over her shoulder as her body slipped more. "Let go; I'll catch you!"_

_"__What if you miss?" she yelled back, fear of falling and getting hurt high on her list of reasons __**NOT**__ to let go. _

_"__I won't I promise! On three!"_

_Abby and Cutter showed up then, both with equally terrified expressions. Jenny came around another corner and covered her mouth in horror as Connor watched as finger by finger she lost her gripping._

_"__I don't have til—" she fell screaming as her last finger slipped. "THREE!"_

_Connor slid down and tried to catch her hand as she plummeted towards the earth. Abby and Nick both yelled while Jenny looked away. Raylen's eyes squeezed shut…_

_And then she hit something soft and warm._

_"__You ok Raylen? His voice was muted and gentle, and she felt as if she didn't just fall off a roof._

_"__I am now," she whispered, half in la-la-love-land, then— "That I am not dangling above the jaws of a hungry gorgonopsid!" she quickly added to avoid getting weird looks and totally changing her friendship with Stephen._

Her phone's ringer drew her out of the memory. She flicked it open and put it to her ear, then spoke.

"I had to fill out some paperwork. I'm on the way home right now, William."

"You better be," the voice of her probably drunk boyfriend growled then hang up.

With a sigh, she closed the phone. Then she tossed it aside as she stopped at a red light.

Another memory weaseled its way into her mind's eyes. But this time… it didn't seem like it was really her own, more of her version of someone else's memory.

_Raylen was walking out with the team, a map in her hands. She had called William and said she'd be late getting home because something came up at work. He seemed to be in a good mood, so she wasn't even on guard…_

_That is, until she ran into Stephen's back._

_"__Stephen what the hell—"_

_"__Raylen Marie," it was the voice of her boyfriend that cut her off, dripping in anger and probably scotch. And Raylen swallowed._

_"__William…" she whispered, her fingers releasing the map._

_Stephen's hands balled in to fists. The others stared at him in confusion as the other man spoke again._

_"__You are to come home now."_

_Raylen slowly stepped out from behind Stephen. "I have to work."_

_"__There are five other people on your team. They can handle it," William snarled at her, and she visibly flinched at the harsh words._

_"__They need my help."_

_"__What are they doing that they need five people and a useless little thing like you?"_

_Raylen's body shook under the blow. Connor stepped over and wrapped an arm around her shoulders as Cutter stepped forward._

_"__How dare you call her useless? Do you know how hard she works?" the Scotsman snarled, his blue eyes glaring holes into William._

_Jenny stepped up beside him. "You obviously have never tried to get to know her. Raylen is the hardest working person we have on this team. And I think now I know why she practically works herself to the bone! Because you keep slamming her confidence into the dirt!"_

_Abby wrapped another arm around Raylen as William spoke again._

_"__Humph. As if you lot are any different. She seems to always be after work to do the paperwork. Do you all just shove it on top of her own? Because she is so hardworking?"_

_Connor couldn't hold it as Raylen started sobbing. "You shut it you bastard! You don't deserve someone as good as Ray! She's smart she's fun and she's probably one of the bravest people I know! But that fact that you can reduce one of my best friends to tears by calling them names and degrading them is sickening! Did your parents not love you or something?!"_

_Abby was rubbing her shoulders as Raylen desperately wiped her tears._

_"__If she had a spine she wouldn't be crying would she, dog-boy."_

_As Raylen wiped, her foundation was wiped away, and a healing black eye was revealed, causing Abby to get very, VERY ANGRY._

_"__You MONSTER!" she screamed at the man who had a smug look on his face. "How dare you lay a hand in anger on her! You have no right to beat her like a dog! You are the one that should be beaten you vile creature!"_

_Stephen finally held up a hand and advanced on the man. "You're William?"_

_"__Yea, what's it to ya?"_

_"__If I EVER see you around Raylen, or if I see her with a bruise and she mentions you, I want you to keep in mind that I am a very good shot with a rifle, and in my line of work, they __**never **__**find Your BODY. **__Am I understood you little worm?"_

_William stood in shock as Raylen's head shot up and stared at Stephen in surprise._

_"__And the same goes for the rest of us. And we all know people, who __**KILL**__ people," Jenny stated sharply._

Raylen didn't get to see the rest of the twisted memory as her handheld ADD went off, followed by her phone. So she pulled over and answered the phone, then started fiddling with the ADD to get the coordinates.

"Raylen here," she stated as the coordinates finally came in. "Talk Connor."

"The anomaly is in Jubilee Gardens on… Belvedere Road."

She looked up. "I'm about to pass that road. I'll head there and check it out. I'll meet everyone there."

"Alright."

They both hung up, and she looked at the phone. She debated calling William, but figured she could go check out the anomaly, then head home once everyone was there. She could blame traffic.

So she pulled back into the road and drove towards the park.

With the handheld in hand and her tranquilizer pistol in the other, she cautiously followed the beeping of her ADD to the anomaly.

"Alright, bingo," she sighed, then backed away so she could safely call Connor to give them directions.

Just as she pulled her phone out… there was a growl. Loud and menacing.

Slowly, as if in slow motion, she turned to come face to face with a smilodon. Her breathing hitched as it stared at her, a little bit of saliva dripping down its jaw.

She didn't think twice. She spun and ran…. heading straight for the anomaly, with the smilodon on her trail like dogs after the postman.

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X~


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 of Like A Rose

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Chapter 1: Return...

Stephen growled as he walked through the Forest of Dean. It seemed that whenever things were going relatively good in the Home Office… This accursed anomaly in this damned forest would reopen. Everytime! Every damn time.

It seemed much worse than usual since Raylen had gone missing… through the same anomaly… eight months before. He had just gotten her away from that bastard of a boyfriend after he showed up one evening at the Home Office trying to force her to go home with him where no doubt he was going to beat her to the brink of death even though she had called and told him that she would be late from work.

_No Stephen,_ he snapped at himself. _I must quit beating myself up for not protecting her._

What had happened with the anomaly was that… he and Raylen had been teamed together trying to track the creature, which she had deduced to be a small venomous mammal like creature called therocephalians, named mostly for their large skulls. She had walked with a steady pace not fifteen steps away, when another creature burst from the trees in front of her, a large quadruped which neither could recognize. Her body had spun on its own. And she had led it back to the anomaly… by running through, and it had closed the minute they had both passed through.

He shook his head to get rid of his thoughts, which he knew would make him distracted in the dino hunt that was bound to occur.

And there it was as he heard the crashing of something running through the trees behind him. He spun and brought his tranquilizer rifle to his shoulder and his blue eyes stared down the scope as he waited for the creature to come through the trees…

And just as the figure came into range, he pulled the trigger when it appeared in his sights.

It gave a cry, and fell to the earth with a dart in its shoulder as a smilodon leaped over it and head for him.

This he filled with about ten darts, as he was in a mood. Then he looked at the first thing and cursed.

It was a human. And a woman at that.

"Well this is just great," he growled, slinging his gun over his shoulder and walking over to her. "Just my bloody luck." He knelt down to roll her over. "I go and shoot a civilian—" he looked down and then stared, his voice dead in his throat.

Raylen's face stared back, her eyes closed in sleep and her breathing even. Her clothes were ripped from the branches of trees and other things. Her hair had twigs and leaves in it, but other-wise she almost looked exactly like she did when she left.

He looked around, then lifted her bridle style and carried her back to his truck, and laid her in the backseat with a blanket over her.

After the anomaly was taken care of, Stephen had driven back to his flat, glancing over his shoulder at the lump in his back seat. Once he was at his flat he carried her in and laid her down as gently as he could on the couch and pulled the dart out of her shoulder. Then he covered her up, and left her be for a few hours.

He went to the kitchen and leaned against the counter. Was everything gonna be the same? Would she even remember the team? Would she come back with post traumatic stress syndrome? Did she catch that parasite that that one dodo that bit Conner's friend and caused him to die? Would she change into a—Okay now he was just getting a little too freaked. Time for a drink…

He walked over to the fridge and grabbed a Guinness from the door and popped off the lid and took a swig as he thought back to the first day that he had Raylen as a flatmate.

_Raylen followed Stephen to the front door with a box in each of their hands as he unlocked the door and led her inside._

_"Well, welcome home, Raylen," he said setting the keys on the table by the door and leading her to the living room. "So… this is the main room. The bathroom is just down the hall there. And your room is…" he walked down the hall and opened the door. "Right here."_

_She followed obediently and looked around._

_The room was empty, which he had warned her about, and promised that once they unloaded the truck they could go find her a nice bed, and that he would pay for it, though she insisted she could. But he stated he was trying to help her get back on her feet, so anything she needed for sleeping or basic living, he would cover. She finally got him to agree to let her pay half the rent and for them to take turns buying groceries._

_Back to the room, it was fair sized, room enough for a big bed, a dresser or wardrobe, a desk, and an entertainment center, if she wanted it._

_"It's… nice," her voice said softly, setting down the box and stuffing her hands in her pockets. "Where's your room?"_

_"Down by the bathroom. There's also a studio sort of room. If you have any art stuff you can put it in there. I have a treadmill but that's it in there. You can try and take it over. I can move the treadmill to my room," he said as he opened the window to get some air in the room. "Come on, let's get the rest."_

_She nodded and followed, her hands still in her pockets. They each grabbed up to three boxes at a time, and once they were in her room, they went to a mattress store and got her a nice king sized bed that they installed when they got home. Then while he ordered Chinese she made her bed and started unpacking._

_He peeked in every now and then, observing her trying to hang pictures, position books on the shelves, and set old figurines and keepsakes onto of her dresser and on some wall shelves._

_She moved with shy, timid movements, keeping things where it would be safe but easy repack if necessary. Occasionally she would reset something, or move things around as if nervous in her actions and waiting to be yelled at._

_Stephen would only admit it to himself, but he did find Raylen easy on the eyes, and attractive on the occasions she had to dress up. Which she did when she wanted to see what everyone thought of new outfits. Claudia and Abby always went bananas, Connor sometimes drooled, and Nick always had a smile on his face and treated her as if he was a father sending his little girl to her first date. Stephen just smiled and nodded whenever she twirled._

_The doorbell rang, and he went to the door to pay the delivery boy and take the Chinese to the kitchen._

_"Raylen, suppers here!"_

_"Coming!"_

He chuckled as he remembered the awkwardness between the two of them for the first few weeks. She would sit on the far end of the couch twitching like she was waiting for him to come at her in anger. When he would come to her to help her with something she'd squeak and hide. And he would laugh his head off. Which when she came out of hiding would make her blush redder than that obnoxious pair of Connor's pants.

He peeked back in on her, noted she was still sleeping, and took another drink of his beer. He went back to the kitchen and leaned against the counter as he thought of another memory of her as his flatmate.

_Raylen came into the living room with a pot of hot water and a lot of bandages._

_"Raylen, the raptor didn't take off my foot so you don't need so many bandages," Stephen sighed heavily._

_"It never hurts to be prepared," Raylen walked over and set the pot on the floor and then started taking off the bandages around his ankle._

_"It does if you are over prepared."_

_"There is no such thing as over prepared," she snapped, ripping off the gauze on the bite marks on his ankle. "You never know what the predators have on their teeth."_

_"Now you sound like a germ-a-phobe."_

_"I do not."_

_"You do too."_

_She answered him by slapping a washcloth that had been in the pot of hot water onto his wound. He jumped and yelled a little, and then glared at her._

_"Don't piss off your nurse," she stated, and started washing his ankle._

_"So you just showed me why not to."_

_"Good," she said, beginning to be more careful. "And remember, you are supposed to take it easy."_

_"I know I know. Geez, you sound like my mother."_

_"Could be worse."_

_"Oh?"_

_"You could be forced to stay in that chair all day."_

_He groaned and kept quiet after that, letting her re-bandage his foot in silence. When she was finished, she stood and walked back to the kitchen to dump the water._

_Then she came back and plopped on the couch with him. "Wanna watch a movie?"_

_"I guess that means going for a run is out of the question."_

_"Yes, it does mean that. So what movie?"_

_"Just pick something."_

_"Alright."_

_She put in a random movie, neither paid attention—he had grabbed a paper and she was repairing a pair of jeans. But the movie provided background noise, and made it seem like it was how it should have been if they were together…which he wondered in the back of his mind if they would ever be potentially together._

_Stephen did kinda fancy Raylen. She was a quick learner, very sweet and kind, and was a hard worker. She had a great perception of how to be silent and swift, and she was becoming a good shot under his guidance._

_He noticed her peeking at him every now and then, and wondered again if she fancied him…_

There was a groaning sound from the living room, and he walked out as Raylen sat up with her head in her hands.

"Ugh… ow… I feel like shit."

"Well, according to Abby that's what it feels like after you get tranqed."

Her head snapped up and she stared at him, her complexion paling, like she was seeing a ghost. "St-Steph-Stephen?!"

"Yea," he said, the part of him that liked her seeming to become hopeful that she'd tackle him in a hug. "Who'd you expect?"

"B-but you're dead!"

_That stung… wait what was that supposed to mean?!_ He thought, taking his turn to stare.

"But if you're dead that means—FUCK I GOT EATEN! THAT DAMNED SMILODON ATE ME!" she stood and started pacing. "So now I'm in purgatory or hell, or maybe heaven… ugh! And if that damn smilodon didn't eat me that means William probably finally beat me to death!"

He walked over and grabbed her shoulders. "Raylen, you haven't been with William for a year."

She stared at him. "What do you mean?"

"You took me up on the offer I made you. You and I are flatmates."

"No, I didn't get a chance to take you up on it because you died before I could!"

"What do you mean I died?" he was starting to get annoyed. "You've been missing in the anomalies for eight months, Raylen!"

Raylen blinked. "No I haven't. I just ran through the anomaly at Jubilee Gardens. Like," she looked at her watch. "Five hours ago. Then I ran into a clearing and—" she glared at him. "YOU SHOT ME!"

Stephen sighed. "I thought you were a creature!"

"DID YOU NOT HERE ME SCREAMING?!"

"No I did not and quit yelling at me! You're gonna make the neighbors think I'm dating again…"

Raylen quieted, then looked him over. "So… I'm not dead."

"Yea and neither am I."

She started pacing again. "If I am not dead and apparently you aren't either… then… Damnit this is an alternate timeline! And if you're not dead that means that Leek is not involved with the ARC, which means… nobody died," she stopped, this dawning on her. "And I am in another timeline where Stephen is alive, and I've been missing for nearly a year…"

Stephen groaned. "Now you sound like you're related to Cutter."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 of Like A Rose

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Chapter 2: Confusion

Raylen liked to pride herself on being a very logical woman. When Cutter had come back raving about there being a woman named Claudia Brown that they had worked with and that Oliver Leek had never been there, and they were still a part of the Home Office, she—and most everyone else—believed he was just stressed about what had happened between Helen and Stephen.

Yea that had disturbed her and frightened her away from her crush for a little while.

But that was beside the point at this point. What was important, was the fact that she was now in a different timeline where there was no Leek who wanted to make himself bigger on the food chain of the human race. Which meant that Stephen didn't have to die. Or Cutter start to go crazy.

"Raylen. You keep pacing like that and you will wear a rut in the floor."

She spun and looked at Stephen. "Oh… right. Sorry… jumbled thoughts."

He nodded. "Now you said something about an alternate timeline."

"Well, yes. Because in my timeline, you were killed by a roomful predators from all over history because Helen tricked a little creep into thinking that was the best way to take over the world. And she had you turned against Lester and Nick…" she turned, her arms crossed as she looked out the window. _And me…_

"I would have… never done… that…" he said behind her. "Unless there was reasonable doubt."

"I have no clue what it was," she sighed. "But… when you realized Helen had been lying to you… you were so distrusting… you didn't want to deal with being unable to trust your friends so you punched Nick and ran inside the room to lock the door…"

Stephen was silence. "You watched it didn't you?"

Raylen nodded. "Yea… I ran back in to try and find Nick… We ran back to try and trap them... Helen had kicked the lock on the outside of the room… Nick was going to go in instead, but you went in…"

He walked up behind her and rubbed her shoulders. "I understand… You don't need to try and explain."

She nodded and took a breath. "I think I need to go lay down… where's my room?"

"Down the hall to the left. I'll be at the Home Office…"

She didn't say anything, just went to the room as directed, and then stared.

Everything she had ever owned or coveted was in the room. Figurines on the shelves from her childhood. Books that she had acquired over the years littered bookshelves. On the bed were various stuffed animals, all grouped around the pillows as if to make sleep easier. There was a desk with her computer and a nice lamp next to it. Then there was a fair sized telly on its own shelf. It was the way she had always hoped her room would be without William.

She spun silently, looking around at everything. Then she finally decided that bed looked awfully welcoming, and flopped down in the epicenter of the animals and fell asleep curled around a big, white, fluffy and floppy eared stuffed dog.

Stephen got out of his truck at the Home Office with a sigh. Yes, he was glad that Raylen was back… but she was claiming to not be the right Raylen for this timeline. He was so confused that when he got to the main room where Connor was working on his anomaly detector, he actually tripped over Connor's toolbox. And slammed his forehead into the table desk thing the geek had the mass of screens on. So he was out cold, bleeding, confused, and when he would woke up…. Beyond slightly embarrassed.

But while unconscious, he might as well get weird visions or memories that he didn't even remember making.

_Stephen followed Helen, trying to explain to her that it was best if they exposed the whole anomaly thing to the public or confronted Lester. She said no they had to leave. Flee into the past. Maybe they could go back and fix everything before it had come to this._

_Before he could say another word, he heard it. A voice. A voice of someone that Helen had claimed that Lester had had killed._

_"Cutter! Cutter where are you?!"_

_Raylen._

_He turned to glare at Helen. "You told me they were all killed."_

_"She… must have gotten away."_

_He turned to try and see Raylen, when instead he saw Nick stand to go to her, when the older man saw him as the young woman jogged up behind the professor._

_Raylen stared at Stephen, Nick glared at Helen, Helen glared at Raylen. Then Stephen stared at Nick, Nick glared back at him, and Raylen and Helen were glaring at each other. Then Stephen looked at Helen, and Nick looked at Raylen._

_"You said he was dead," the tracker stated, looking at the former female professor. When she didn't answer his look at her hardened. "What have you done?"_

_"Not you too," Nick said, keeping himself between Stephen and Raylen. "Don't tell me you knew about this."_

_Stephen held up his hand. "Oh, I have never seen this place before in my life."_

_Helen spoke. "I told you the truth. Lester brought me here!"_

_"And you're just the innocent victim!" Raylen snarled at Helen. "Helpless and frightened? What about me, Abby, Connor, Caroline, and Jenny when Leek threw us into that arena to be eaten by that Smilodon, Helen?! Lester was attacked at the ARC by a predator that Leek had let loose in the building!"_

_"You ask her. Ask her about what she really wanted to do," Nick snapped at Stephen. "Ask her about Leek! Ask her about how many people were gonna die!"_

_"They're trying to trick you, Stephen," Helen stated, in a seductive tone._

_"I so wanted to believe in you," the tracker told her, leaning on the railing._

_Nick huffed while Raylen looked almost betrayed by the words._

_"But that doesn't put you in the right!" Stephen screamed at Nick, making Raylen jump._

_"Stephen, there's a whole army of predators here and if any on them make it aboveground there's not gonna be anyone left! Now if you want to help people, we have to do this—"_

_"They're too powerful, Nick!" Helen argued, making Stephen feel like he was in the center of an argument between two parents and he was the child. "There's nothing you can do."_

_Raylen covered her ears at all the arguing._

_"Well you're gonna have to think of something, because we're all gonna die," Nick snarled, glowering at his ex-wife, his blue eyes forming a potentially fatal glare. "Now you brought them here. You know them."_

_The room was silent, Raylen peeking from behind Nick to watch Stephen as his eyes darted between his best friend and his ex-wife._

_Helen turned to Nick. "The siren." She took a breath. "The creatures associate the sound with food." She walked towards Stephen as Nick gently took Raylen's hand and led her towards them. "They'll come back to the cage room whenever it sounds."_

_"If we can lock them in with the predators, they're destroy each other," Nick said as he and Raylen stopped beside Stephen and Helen._

_Stephen nodded._

_"Come on then," Nick said, leading the group away._

_Somehow, Stephen and Raylen were pushed to the back of the group. He looked down at the woman who had unknowingly alerted him to Helen's deception._

_He reached for her hand. "Raylen… I'm sorry."_

_"Sorry doesn't cover it Stephen."_

_He stopped her and looked at her. "I know sorry doesn't cover it. I was stupid and I should have known better."_

_"Yea you should have," her voice was cold, but her eyes were full of heartbreak. _

_"Raylen… I just… I didn't know who I could turn to—"_

_"You could have turned to me!" she snapped, tears slipping down her cheeks._

_He blinked._

_"You told me if I wanted to get away from William, you'd help me get the restraining order and give me a room at your flat. You wanted me to trust you," she looked up at him with fire in her tear soaked eyes. "But you couldn't trust me."_

_"It's not that I didn't trust you," he stated. "It's that I didn't want you involved."_

_"I'm already involved, Stephen. You wanna know how?"_

_He nodded silently._

_"Because I love you. There I said it," she turned and ran after Nick and Helen._

_Stephen stood staring at the wall where she had been before looking after her. She was right… that made her more involved than she should be._

_"Raylen…"_

"Stephen… Are you alright, mate?" Connor's voice filled his head and made him open his eyes.

"Connor? What the bloody hell happened?"

"Uh… that was partially my fault…. You tripped over my toolbox… and hit your head on the table for the ADD…" the young man looked sheepish as he rubbed the back of his head.

Cutter was kneeling beside him. "You've been out for the last two hours. We were starting to get worried."

Abby was leaning over him. "Especially since you were bleeding pretty bad."

Claudia sighed from her chair. "And let's not forget the floor which is concrete I believe."

"And you've caused a stir, Hart," a soldier said, leaning against a desk.

Stephen sat up. "Shut up Becker."

Lester sighed. "Now that Sleeping Beauty is awake, might we know why you came in so pensive?"

Stephen took an ice pack from Abby before looking up at Lester, then Nick. "Well… Raylen."

They all—even Lester, but minus Becker—gasped and stared.

Connor spoke first. "Is she back? Or did you just glimpse her?"

"I accidently shot her with the tranq. She's at our flat right now. But there is a catch…" he answered, looking down as Becker helped him up, the ice pack on his head.

"What?" they all asked.

"She says she's from another timeline."

They all looked to each other.

Stephen knew what they were all thinking; he had gone bonkers or she had. He saw a look in Lester's eyes that made him wonder if he was thinking that Raylen was the new Helen. "How-ever I am pretty sure she is normal otherwise. She still gets lost in thought and she still laughs nervously."

Abby looked at him. "But her confidence level?"

"I think in her timeline… she is still with William… because she claims I died."

That made them all deathly silent.

"Did she say what happened?" Nick asked.

"Sounds like mostly Helen."

"Of course it was Helen," Lester sighed. "She's convinced we are all idiots."

The group was silent. Stephen felt like they were all either gonna kill or have him sanctioned. This all did sound rather crazy.

"I want to go see her."

Everyone looked at Abby.

"What? She is one of my closest friends. And I helped her with the confidence issue. If she's from another timeline and is still with that monster, maybe we can try and boost her confidence enough to get her to ask for help from her team to leave him."

The team nodded at this, and Stephen agreed. These may not be the team she remembers, but they would still do anything for Raylen.

As the group slowly filed into the main room, Stephen insisted they waited there while he went back to Raylen's room.

His suspicions about her still being with William in her timeline were confirmed when he saw her curled around the stuffed white dog, as if it was the only thing keeping her safe.

He thought back to when she first moved in; she did not go to sleep without being curled in a ball or curled around a stuffed animal. Then slowly it got better, to the point she just laid among the stuffed animals to sleep.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 of Like A Rose

* * *

Chapter 3: Re-Introductions

Raylen was still curled around her stuffed dog. Her breathing was even, but her muscles tense. She was dreaming a rather odd dream… but she didn't know what to think of it.

_She ran faster than she had ever run before. She was in the late Maastrichtian, and was running from something she probably wouldn't survive unless an anomaly opened at that very instant—the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event, which if she did happen to miraculously survive, she could safely and first handedly tell Nick that the dinosaurs were wiped out because of a meteor storm which half landed near some of the most active volcanoes of the age and caused them to erupt and cause a nuclear winter. But right now she was running from one of the crashing meteorites that were landing beside what in present day would Yellowstone National Park in America._

**_Anomaly would be nice! Anomaly would be nice!_**_ She screamed in her head as she continued running through the Cretaceous jungle, dinosaurs joining her in her mad dash away from the area. Herbivores and Carnivores alike ran through the trees, all scrambling, none paying attention to what was running beside them or under them. No doubt any nests by now would be filled with hardboiled eggs, and any young and old creatures dead from the heat of the incoming projectile._

_Then…suddenly… there was silence. The dinosaurs kept running. But she stopped._

_She knew she shouldn't have, she knew she should have kept running. But that damn human curiosity made her turn around as a shock wave came towards her as she watch dust, smoke and earth rise into the prehistoric sky. _

**_Move._**_ Her subconscious told her as the wave came closer. __**Run.**__ The shockwave was a mile away. __**Get Away.**__ The earth and trees were becoming ripped up and thrown back as it came at her. __**FIND AN ANOMALY NOW!**_

_She finally moved. She spun and started running after the vast group of dinos, almost tripping over some that had literally ran themselves to death. _

_Her heart was pounding in her ears as she felt the first hint of the wind in front of the shockwave catching up to her._

_Then it caught her. Square in the back. She went flying forward, the force of the impact shattering every bone in her lower body. Her head then went into a large boulder, followed by her shoulders, which were also broke upon impact._

_So she lay there, broken, frightened, and utterly alone as some of the stragglers of the dinos met similar fates to her, only they seemed to have the luck to be dead upon impact. _

_Why did she have to be the one creature that had to watch every moment for her final seconds? Why couldn't she have broken her neck? Or get impaled like that poor duckbilled creature just meters from her?_

_Why did she have to watch as that volcanic plume erupted, and the pyroclastic cloud came tearing towards her? The ever growing cloud of rocks, dirt and heat coming at God knows how many kilometers per hour…_

**_Did God even exist at this time?_**_ She wondered to herself. __**Would a prayer even matter?**_

_"God… if you can hear me from this time… Please… keep the team safe… and let them remember me as a good friend… Dad… your little Raylen is gonna be with you soon," Raylen said softly as the pyroclastic cloud fell upon her…_

Raylen shot awake as a hand rested on her shoulder to shake her, her terrified eyes staring at the wall in front of her while her arms hugged the stuffed animal to her chest.

Stephen grabbed her shoulder. "Are you ok? What's wrong?"

She looked at him panting and then took a deep breath. "Nothing. Very bad dream. What's up?"

"The team's here. They wanted to check on you."

She blinked, then rubbed her temple. "Ok… um… Give me a minute?"

"Yes," he gave her shoulder a squeeze, then got up and walked back to the living room.

Raylen meanwhile was trying to shake the sick feeling she felt after her dream. She had felt as if she had died… but she hadn't right? She was still there and alive…

She shook her head and went to the dresser to find a clean set of clothes, and walked out of her room in a pair of semi-tight jeans, a black tank top, and a pair of black boots.

Peeking into the room, she saw Nick, Abby, Connor, a soldier, and a woman she was tempted to call Jenny. Stephen sat in his chair looking slightly concerned, but refused to answer the questions from Nick and "Jenny."

She backed off and looked up at the ceiling with her back to the wall. _I can do this. They are my original team, just… different timeline…_ she took a deep breath, then stepped into the living room.

The conversation stopped, and Raylen felt like she had just become the main attraction at a fun house. She rubbed her arm, her body shaking in anxiety as she waited for someone to speak. Her nerves seemed to be running high thanks to that weird dream she had had during her nap.

Nick stepped forward. "It's good to have you back, Raylen. We were starting to fear the worse."

She nodded mutely as the older man embraced her.

Then Connor and Abby hugged her at the same time. "We missed you! It's good to see you!"

"Yea… You too," she replied with a nervous tone.

They released her and the woman she thought was Jenny came over. "We were really worried about you know."

"I bet, Jenny," she said automatically.

The room froze and she stared back at them. "What?"

"Raylen. This is Claudia Brown," Nick said slightly firm.

Raylen's green eyes blinked. "But… she looks exactly like Jenny Lewis from my timeline…"

"Jenny Lewis?" Claudia asked. "Your timeline?"

Stephen stood. "I told you. She's from another timeline."

The soldier huffed. "That was obvious. I've never met her and I could tell. If she was close to you all as you said, she would have run out and hugged everyone."

Raylen's body tensed. "And you are, Soldier Boy?"

The soldier stood and walked over to her. "Captain H. Becker. The head of security."

"And the H stands for?" she asked with a huff.

"That is none of your business."

"It is if you're protecting my friends—even if they're not from my timeline I care about them."

Becker chuckled. "I'd rather you didn't know."

"Fine, but I will get it out of you," she said, then turned to everyone else. "Before I make another fool of myself… are you all still at Home Office? Or is the ARC in the midst of being built?"

They all looked at each other, then Stephen spoke. "The ARC is in the midst of being built."

She nodded. "Lester still cynical?"

"Yes," Nick said.

Before she could ask another word, her pocket began beeping, making them all jump and Becker to pull a hand gun as she fumbled with the handheld ADD. She turned it down for one, and then she fiddled with the switches. "There's an anomaly… about four clicks north of here."

Becker put his gun away and headed for the door while Connor examined the device while she tried to fine tune it on the detection of the anomaly.

"Is that a handheld of the ADD?" he asked curiously.

Raylen nodded. "Yea, my timeline's Connor got them nice and easy to conceal, and so we can turn down the beeping."

"Would you mind if I checked it out once we're done with this anomaly?" he asked, his brown eyes eager.

"Sure. As long as you give it back."

"Of course. I understand," he said as the group headed out to the trucks.

Stephen opened the passenger side of his truck, and Raylen got in while she fiddled more with her detector, not paying attention to what truck she was in until they started moving and passed Nick's.

"When do I turn?" the male tracker asked.

Her head snapped up and look at him. She blinked and tried to remember if she had been following him.

"When do I turn?" he repeated as he looked around at the streets.

"Oh, right," she looked down at her ADD and turned a dial. "Turn… LEFT NOW!"

Stephen turned the corner sharply, followed by Nick.

The next few turns were the same.

Pulling into the parking area of a small park, Stephen and Raylen got out of the truck and ran towards the trees as the others pulled in. The young woman led the older man at a good speed, weaving between the trees and leaping over the low undergrowth.

She skidded to a halt when she came face to face with the anomaly. "Found it."

Stephen stopped behind her and panted. "I've almost forgotten how fast you can run… I'm out of shape."

Raylen laughed. "No, no you're not. You forget I used to be a dancer. Sometimes we had to make runs back to the dressing rooms between dances, so I learned to be fast."

He chuckled and they looked around as the team got there, Becker with a rifle to his shoulder. Raylen looked around to try and find signs of a creature incursion. As Connor walked over to her, she found the first sign—footprints.

"We have a creature."

The rest came over and surrounded her, examining the prints.

Nick looked thoughtful. "Hadrosaur of some form."

Raylen nodded and pulled out a tranquilizer pistol. "And those are herbivores. I got it." She started to walk away.

Stephen stood. "Oh no you don't. I'm not letting you out of my sight. Besides, two sets of eyes are better than one."

She rolled her eyes. "Fine. But wait til I tell you to shoot, Mr. Trigger Happy."

"Is this about me shooting you?!" he asked as they left the group.

"Maybe."

Raylen led the stalk, her feet silent and her body low to the ground so she could keep an eye on the tracks. Stephen was more on alert, keeping an eye out for anything that was potentially dangerous.

"Stephen."

"Hmm?"

"Look," the woman said, pointing forward at a young parasaurolophus grazing on ferns. "It's a Parasaurolophus, one of the largest Hadrosaurs. The horn on its head is hallowed and helps resonate its distress calls."

"Ah… you're worse than Connor some days…" Stephen sighed.

"Actually, when I was younger, I used to watch this American animated movie series called Land Before Time. One of the characters, Ducky, appeared to be a Parasaurolophus, and she was my favorite."

"I see."

Raylen stood and walked around to stand in front of the creature. "Hey you."

The duckbilled creature raised its head and looked at Raylen curiously, then honked softly.

"It's ok, big baby," she whispered, reaching a handful of ferns up to the prehistoric cow-like reptile.

The creature's lips wrapped around the leaves and started eating them with a hum like sound. While it ate, she rubbed its forehead with a soft crooning sound.

Stephen took his time to come to her side. "She's beautiful."

"Isn't she? Just amazing…" she whispered.


End file.
